Quinn Dombrowski spent months analyzing some of the University of Chicago’s highbrow graffiti.

That’s where Quinn Dombrowski, an IT coordinator at the school’s Regenstein Library, started noticing eccentric scrawlings. She decided to document it, first on an online photo album, then her blog.

Most recently, she conducted “statistical analysis” (Excel spreadsheets were involved) of some 620 pieces of graffiti — most tallied within a week of their creation — in a recently published magazine article.

Using smiley-faces as an indicator, she found that 63% of the library graffiti was “positive.” Seventy percent of the uses of “happy” were in the phrase “Be happy,” she pointed out, however, “suggesting happiness is a currently unrealized state.”

Ms. Dombrowski found seasonal fluctuations in the use of words like “love” and “sex.” Graffiti containing “love” was most frequent at the beginning of the school year and continued to be used often through November, which is when “despair” was also used most frequently (looming midterms may have played a role, she said). “Love” and “despair” drop off until April, when “love” has its second peak, and in May, “despair” peaks again.

But students were expressing more than base emotions. They also crafted graffiti proofs about women and money, bemoaning cold Chicago winters and stressing out about being too drunk to get work done.

The project started more than two years ago, when Ms. Dombrowski spotted graffiti in the book stacks. Each week, she saw more there, and she began shooting photos of it as well as graffiti on the whiteboards in the library’s all night study area and even in the men’s bathroom stalls — “truly the nerdiest place on earth.”

Among her favorites are one that says “I’m in love and it’s finals week.” “That was just heartbreaking, and beautiful,” she said, though there were some responses written below it that were not quite as eloquent, including “Pay attention to your studies — true love will wait,” and “F— her, man.”

Then there was one in hieroglyphics. According to a university Egyptologist who translated it for Ms. Dombrowski, it says, “We did it twice in the morning.”

“You can find that [kind of statement] at any college,” she said, but “doing it with that sort of flair is the sort of thing you can only find at a place like U. of C.”

Ms. Dombrowski hopes to extend the project to other schools if she can find collaborators. “Even if I had the time and money to embark on graffiti tourism, it wouldn’t be the same. A project like this needs someone local, who understands the references and the culture,” she said.

Fame-seeking guerilla artists need not apply. Ms. Dombrowski includes a disclaimer on her site that says, “I do not support, endorse or encourage writing in libraries other than on surfaces specifically designated for that purpose. Think of the poor facilities people who have to clean up after you and don’t do it. If I come across graffiti that seems to be written specifically for the purpose of appearing on this site, I won’t post it.”